Agreement

The
Silesian Digital Library was initiated by the founding Agreement on
the cooperation in the creation of the SDL between the Silesian
Library and the University of Silesia in Katowice, signed on 20th
July 2006, whose aim was to work out the principles of open
participation of other institutions in the region.

At
present Participants of the SDL create digital content according to
the Agreement on co-creation of the Silesian Digital Library, which
is presented below. Text of the Agreement was established together by
all institutions declaring the participation in the SDL on 24th
October 2006.

According
to § 1 p. 4 ‘The Agreement is open in its character and all
institutions sharing its aims and representing the area of culture,
education and science can participate in it’. Conditions of
entering the SDL are: to sign the Agreement, stamp it with an
institution seal and deliver two copies to the address: Biblioteka
Śląska, Plac Rady Europy 1, 40-021 Katowice, Poland.

The mission of the Silesian Digital Library is to
present online cultural heritage of the area of the historical
Silesia and the Śląskie (Silesian) Voivodeship in its historic and
contemporary diversity, support teaching and educational activities
and publish the scientific property of the region.

- national, European and world cultural heritage collected in the
region,

- scientific publications,

- educational and teaching materials,

- and other contributed by the Participants of the Agreement.

b) to make available the SDL digital content via the Internet,

c) to consolidate copies of original collections scattered throughout
the region on the common platform of digital content,

d) to develop a research workshop with the use of electronic tools,

e) to preserve collections by limiting the necessity of using the
originals,

f) to coordinate digitization projects carried out by the Participants.

The Agreement is open in its character and all institutions sharing
its aims and representing the area of culture, education and science
can participate in it.

The condition of entering the Agreement is to sign the text of the
Agreement.

The Silesian Digital Library

§ 2

The SDL is a digital platform which enables collecting, cataloguing
and presenting the electronic versions of publications prepared by
editors in institutions co-creating the SDL content, and makes them
available to users of the Internet.

The organizational coordinator of the Agreement is the Silesian
Library in Katowice. The SDL content and its main infrastructure is
situated in the Silesian Library which supports the SDL domains,
provides the Internet connection and administers its system.

The safety copy of the content (mirror) is situated in the Library
of the University of Silesia.

The SDL is included in the national system of remote digital
libraries.

The Internet domains of the SDL are:

a) European: digitalsilesia.eu

b) Polish: sbc.org.pl

Principles of co-creation of the SDL content

§ 3

Content of the Silesian Digital Library is created distributively –
by each Participant of the Agreement.

Publication of digital content via the SDL by the Participants is
free of charge.

Participants publish digital content on equal rights and each of
them decides autonomously which publications and how many of them
will be published.

Each Participant takes responsibility for solving the problem of
copyright, making sure the rights are terminated or concluding an
agreement with an owner of the rights.

Participants maintain rights to their digital content published in
the SDL and determine the period of its availability as well as
conditions of its commercial use.

On a page containing a bibliographic description of a publication
the Participant who had published it may include a logo of the
institution (e.g. an ex-libris) together with a link to its Internet
site.

Objectives of the Participants of
the SDL

§ 4

Collaborative objectives of the Participants are:

To cooperate in establishing the principles of cataloguing digital
content for various types of collections and defining the
collections.

To establish recommendations and standards for graphic formats used
in the SDL as well as the principles of their preparation.

To establish and support formal recommendations concerning the
choice of publications to be presented in the SDL.

To plan and coordinate digitization and publication of digital
contents.

To cooperate in automation of library processes related to the SDL
content.

To plan and organize training of the SDL operators.

To promote mutually activities of the institutions – Participants
of the Agreement and the SDL.

To propose and conduct collaborative projects within the SDL.

To initiate and conduct activities aiming at raising funds for the
development of the SDL.

§ 5

Objectives of the Participants-Founders are:

To maintain the SDL servers and domains.

To create safety copies of the SDL content.

To administrate the system and software, and to update the data on
the SDL Internet site.

To organize meetings, to conduct a correspondence.

To administrate the SDL Internet forum.

§ 6

Own objectives of the Participants are:

To propose and select items from the Participant’s own collection
for digitization.

To obtain licence for publication in the SDL works protected by
copyright.

To train editors and administrators of the SDL.

To prepare digital versions of the publications.

To create bibliographic descriptions of the Participant’s own
content published in the SDL.

To publish and administrate the Participant’s own content in the
SDL.

To save copies of the Participant’s own content published in the
SDL.

To delegate a representative of the Participant to the consortium
“Polish Digital Libraries” (optional).

The SDL organizational structure

§
7

Assembly of the Participants

The highest authority of the SDL Agreement is the Assembly of the
Participants.

Each Participant may be represented by any number of
representatives, but one institution is entitled to only one valid
vote.

The Assembly is called when necessary or if requested by half of the
number of representatives, but at least once a year.

Participants can also hold meetings and vote online.

Decisions and resolutions are passed by an ordinary majority of
votes.

Each Participant of the SDL may dismiss its representative and
appoint another, but the Team of Coordinators must be notified about
it in writing.

Meetings of the Assembly are minuted.

In meetings of the Assembly can participate invited guests and
experts.

§ 8

Team of Coordinators

The Team of Coordinators (TC) executes and supervises the
realization of collaborative objectives and objectives of the
Participants-Founders.

The TC consists of 7 coordinators and operates according to the
regulations, accepted by the TC itself.

Members of the TC are elected by the Assembly of the Participants
for the period of 3 years, by an absolute majority of votes.

Permanent members of the TC are two representatives of the SDL
Participants-Founders.

Activities of the TC are supervised by a Chairperson selected out of
the members of the TC.

If necessary, the Assembly of the Participants or the Team of
Coordinators can appoint and disband working groups for the
realization of specific objectives.

§ 9

College of Researchers

The College of Researchers (CR) is the advisory and consultative
body to the SDL Participants on general directions of the
development of research, scientific, teaching and educational
collections.

The CR consists of representatives of academic and scientific
institutions participating in the SDL, delegated by the heads of the
institutions.

Any scientific expert from an institution not participating in the
SDL, if invited by members of the CR, can also become a member of
the CR.

The CR activities are supervised by a Chairperson, who is selected
out of the members of the CR, according to a procedure adopted by
the CR, for the period of 3 years.

Meetings of the CR are called by the Chairperson or half of the
number of its members, at least twice a year.

§ 10

Results of activities of the Team of Coordinators, the College of
Researchers and working groups are available to all Participants of
the SDL Agreement.

Communication and support of the SDL Participants

§
11

To facilitate the exchange of information between
representatives of the SDL Participants an e-mail alias
psbc@bs.katowice.pl
and an Internet forum was established. The forum, being the main
tool of communication at the SDL, is available at the address
http://forum.sbc.katowice.pl.

The SDL editors and administrators can benefit from technical
support provided by producer of software used by the SDL in English
and Polish (phone, e-mail, forum), together with a software
documentation for its users.

Funding

§
12

Current costs of activities determined by the Agreement are covered
by Participants according to objectives realised within the
Agreement.

In order to reduce costs of objectives realised within the Agreement
Participants can perform the objectives collaboratively, according
to agreed arrangements regarding their scope, range of
participation, method of ordering and mutual settlements.

Any additional obligation beyond the scope of the Agreement is
undertaken by an independent decision of the Participant, according
to a separate contract.

Final
provisions

§
13

The Agreement is in force for the period of cooperation in
accordance with the terms of the Agreement.

Each Participant has the right to terminate the Agreement with
three-months’ notice.

Any modifications to the Agreement must be confirmed in writing.

Participants declare that in case of a possible dispute they will
seek an amicable settlement of the dispute.

The Agreement has been drawn up in duplicate. Both copies are signed
by the Participants-Founders and an entering Participant. One copy
is kept by the Participant-Founder (the Silesian Library) and the
second copy is kept by the Participant.

Possible disputes between Participants are settled by the court
approppriate for the Participants-Founders. Cases not specified
under the terms of the Agreement are regulated in compliance with
the Civil Code provisions.

The Silesian Library compiles and updates the List of Participants
co-creating the Silesian Digital Library, which constitutes an Annex
no. 1 to the Agreement. The List of Participants is available on the
SDL Internet site as well as in the SDL Internet forum.